I recently created Monsterhearts skins called the Rusalka and the Medusa. This is a summary of my recent play experience with the Rusalka skin. You can download the skins at the Daedalum AP website.

Oh, Rusalka. I’m so happy I made you.

I’m playing Ekaterina Aandreyev, star member of the swim team, scorned by the Witch, crushed on by the Ghoul, aiming to save the Infernal from himself, and nymph of the waters – a Rusalka.

First things first: the Rusalka starts off slow. You have to work on building some relationships before the skin really gets off the ground, but that’s okay, because it’s an excuse to start having sex right off the bat. This was unusual for me – as most people know, sex and relationships in games are a challenge for me, but I tend to do things that are hard for me on purpose, so it goes – but it was fun.

Once you get your first relationship, though, it starts going better. Doe Eyes makes things fun because you’re not forcing the person to do anything, not really, but they end up helping you in some way whether they like it or not.

Once I got my first advance, I hit my stride. I set up a combo – Doe Eyes, Going Down With Me, and No Pain, No Gain. Ekaterina had banged this dude, Nigel, in a janitors closet, so he was fascinated with her. I used Doe Eyes and got him to give me a +1 forward and then went to go bully this girl who had been giving me trouble. Jennifer – girlfriend of a football star, on the swim team with me, kind of a serious jerk. Her boyfriend had just been hexed by my friend Rae’s character Annabelle (which was fun, because Ekaterina thought that Annabelle had hexed the football players for messing with Ekaterina earlier – she did it “for me”), so I decided to manipulate her into attacking me by mocking her injured boyfriend (my character is kind of an asshole, but this all had a point).

The mocking worked, and she took a swing at me, so I pushed Nigel into the line of fire and he took the hit instead (Going Down With Me). With his harm, I got experience (No Pain, No Gain), and then I had my character go into full-on comfort mode, blaming Jennifer for hitting Nigel – how could she! He didn’t do anything to her! – thoroughly confusing the lunchroom full of kids and fucking with Jennifer’s head.

Earlier in the day, Ekaterina had gone to a swim practice, where Jennifer had been, and I used Water’s Wife to turn her on. It was entirely to fuck with her head. The character has no interest in Jennifer except for making her life confusing and kind of alarming, but she wouldn’t say no to a random hookup. It’s all just one big campaign of messiness.

Later, when Ekaterina was rescued from being kidnapped, her mom poured water over her hair (as you do as a Rusalka) and that activated Water’s Wife, so I ended up turning on both Annabelle and my husband’s character Georgia. Ekaterina had been kidnapped by the teachers at the school, and she knew the principal was involved, so when the principal showed back up, Annabelle bound him, then I spent a string on Georgia (the Ghoul) to get her to eat him. Which she did.

Earlier, Georgia had told Ekaterina about her death and turned her on and gave her the condition morbid. Then she’d fucked off, leaving Ekaterina super frustrated. Seeing Georgia tear up the principal – which Ekaterina translated as “for me”, because she’s hilariously self-centered – made her all hot and bothered, so she asked Georgia to spend the night (she did). Now Georgia is fascinated with Ekaterina, and Ekaterina is the subject of Georgia’s hunger.

All in all, the Rusalka is more about roleplay than mechanics, but when the mechanics do their work, they work, and they encourage very sexually-open and sexually-active behaviors. No one is off limits and once they’re fascinated, the Rusalka’s powers go into effect and it makes things very exciting.

Thanks to my awesome RPG group – Stras, Rae, Marc, and John! Without you testing this out wouldn’t be possible.

I'm a 25 year old admin assistant from around Pittsburgh, PA. I am married, work and attend college concurrently, and have been tabletop gaming for about 8 years. I blog (very, very periodically), and write unpublished short stories. I play tabletop RPGs, board games, and both casual and RPG video games. I live for the social part of gaming, but do enjoy a good explosion, and am learning the ropes of creating worlds in which people can play.